$1 Million Grant To Benefit Asian-american Elderly

Much of Chicago's Japanese-American community arrived in the city en masse following World War II-about 20,000 people with little more than what they could carry away from government internment camps.

To help them find places to live and work, the Chicago Resettlers Club was founded in Uptown in 1946. As the community took root, the club changed its name and focus, becoming the Japanese American Service Committee and deciding in 1960 to devote itself to helping the elderly.

This week, that job got quite a bit easier with the announcement that the small agency has received a $1 million bequest from the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Foundation.

The $1 million will be used to establish an endowment, and the income from investing the endowment-not the endowment itself-can be used by the service committee, said executive director Masaru Nambu.

Nambu said he expects that the agency will use endowment income to support its many programs for the Asian and non-Asian communities, which include arts-and-crafts classes, homemaker services, adult day care and counseling.

The group's latest and largest effort is the Keiro Nursing Home, a 180-bed facility scheduled to open next spring at Foster and Springfield Avenues. "Keiro," which, roughly translated, means "respect of the elderly," is a 10-year project of the agency, Nambu said.

He said the service committee noticed that Japanese-American elderly tended to die much sooner than anticipated when they were admitted to nursing homes.

"They felt they were in a completely foreign environment. The language is foreign to them; the food, while well-balanced, is not their kind of food," Nambu said. "They lost their will to live.

"We felt very sad about that. The first generation of immigrants suffered the most. They should have the most respect."

Keiro Nursing Home, while not restricted to Asian patients, will have a Japanese orientation in its menu, furnishings and staff.

"We want it to be an extension of home for them," Nambu said.

Applications have not yet been taken for residency, but Nambu anticipates that spaces will be filled quickly.

In 1981, the agency opened Heiwa Terrace, an apartment complex for the elderly. All 200 apartments there are full, and there is a three- to four-year wait for admission, Nambu said.

He said the service committee first contacted the Sasakawa Foundation about five years ago and began pursuing a grant in 1990. A representative from the foundation visited the agency in early December before the grant was made last week, he said.